Flag Recap Feb. 10, 2007

WEATHER: The National Weather Service said Parish, NY - about 25 miles northeast of Syracuse - reached a milestone early Saturday with 100 inches of snow during the past seven days. Meanwhile, in Venice, so much for any rain. Sunny, calm, 70. Perfect.

WELCOME: A big welcome to new players Jermaine and Vladimir. Welcome back to Matthew, who hadn't played since last summer and is now off to work in China for 9 months. And a big welcome to our visitor Cyd, glad he wasn't in NYC this winter weekend.

GAME: White won a shootout, 56-49, with tons of big plays.


MVP: It's an easy one – Tommy, aka "Pirate Boy," eating his MVP crackers (above). We actually had two games but Tommy scored three TDs so quickly that we called the first one and started a second one from scratch. Tommy scored on a 65-yard pass on the first play, then ran back an interception on the next drive for his second. He was equally the star in Game 2.

TRICK PLAY OF THE DAY 1: The old hook-and-lateral, last perfected by Boise State. I took a short pass from Cyd and waited a second for the tacklers to converge. I then tossed it back to Cyd, who had a head of steam. He headed down the sideline and scored.

TRICK PLAY OF THE DAY 2: On a 1-point play, Brent took a very short pass from Cyd. The defense converged and Brent lateraled it back to Tommy who ran in easily past the befuddled defense.

REGGIE BUSH TAUNT OF THE WEEK: Marino and Jeremiah had been tussling all day (in good fun). A play after JJ knocked a pass down while Marino futilely claimed PI, he got his revenge. He snagged a hard pass from Toby and turned back pointing the ball at JJ while still running. "I'll pay the $5,000 fine," he said.

PICK OF THE DAY: Cyd had one but it was a beaut. He ran halfway across the field and grabbed the ball low. He managed to keep his feet in bounds as he went up the sidelines for a score.

RECEIVER OF THE DAY: Marino gets the nod as he made a bunch of nifty grabs and had a couple of scores, including a couple of catches while lying on the ground.

Runnerup was Toby, who did a number on his defender, who shall remain nameless. "6-2, 200 pounds! You can't stop him!" Toby yelled once.

TD MAKERS: Tommy led the pack with at least 5. I had 3 (not a typo!), including a 65-yarder. Jermaine also had 3, including a great grab as he was close to running out of the end zone.

WHERE WAS PATRICK: He did not show and Demond said it was because he was still licking his wounds after losing the 50-yard dash a week earlier.

OUCH OF THE WEEK: David jammed his fingers on the ball trying to grab a pass in the ground. It hurt even watching.

LOOKING FOOLISH: Demond caught a short pass and was headed my way. "Come on, D!" I yelled. Of course, all I grabbed was air. The next victim was Brent, and J had to run across the field to make the tackle. "All those who Demond made fools of raise their hands," J said. Brent and my hands shot up immediately.

OFFENSIVE P.I. OF THE WEEK: Toby gets the nod for his takedown of J, who was guarding him. The swim move was OK, it was the WWF-style hook and push that wasn't. Must have been why Toby was 25 yards in the clear. Of course, on the play before J mugged Toby, so all's fair in love and flag football.

HIGHLIGHTS: Vladimir trying to avoid the paparazzi (aka Brent). Vladimir did have a nice back-of-the-end-zone catch for a score. … Matthew got into the end zone early on one of his patented stretch-the-ball-across-the-plane moves that Brent has copied. … On one of Tommy's TD, I knew it was a score when I heard a defender yell "Shit!" That's always a bad sign for any defense.

SCHEDULE: We are back next Saturday, Penmar Park.